Bookkeeping for noon and Amazon sellers: turning payouts into clean books

Imagine a seller of kitchenware whose payout for a two-week period is AED 31,600. Behind that figure sit gross sales of AED 42,000 including VAT, referral fees of AED 4,800, fulfilment fees of AED 3,100, sponsored product spend of AED 1,900 and refunds of AED 600. If the seller records AED 31,600 as revenue, sales are understated by over 25%, VAT on sales is wrong and the fees, which normally carry VAT the seller may recover, disappear from the books.

Over a year the distortion is large enough to matter for the VAT registration threshold, for corporate tax and for any bank looking at the accounts.

Treat each marketplace as a clearing account, much like a bank account that you never hold directly.

• A balance sheet account per marketplace, for example "noon clearing" and "Amazon.ae clearing".
• Gross sales posted to sales revenue, split by VAT treatment.
• Commission and referral fees posted to selling expenses, with the VAT on them as input tax where the invoice supports it.
• Fulfilment, storage and advertising fees to their own expense accounts.
• Refunds and returns to a sales returns account, so gross sales stay visible.
• The payout itself moves from the clearing account to your bank.

HelloBooks does not import noon or Amazon.ae settlement files directly today. Here is the workflow we recommend instead. Download the settlement report from the seller centre. Post one settlement journal per payout period, using a journal template the AI keeps for each marketplace: you enter the gross sales, each fee type and refunds from the report, and the AI fills in the accounts and VAT lines and checks that the journal nets to the payout amount.

When the payout arrives, upload your bank statement. The AI recognises the marketplace transfer and matches it to the clearing account, which should then return to zero for that period. If it does not, the AI tells you the difference in AED, which usually points to a fee you missed. Attach the settlement report to the journal so the evidence sits with the entry. The marketplace's own monthly fee invoices, which carry VAT, are read like any other supplier bill.

Most marketplace sellers hold stock in two places: their own store or warehouse and the marketplace's fulfilment centre. On the Business plan, HelloBooks tracks inventory across multiple warehouses, so stock sent to a fulfilment centre can be moved between locations rather than written off. Cost of goods sold posts when sales are recorded, which gives you a true gross margin per period.

Freight, customs duty and clearing charges on imported stock should be added to the cost of goods. HelloBooks does not allocate landed costs automatically, so record them with a journal against the stock or cost of sales account, using a consistent method your accountant agrees.

Marketplace sellers registered for VAT charge 5% on sales to UAE customers, and the marketplace's fees are a separate supply to you. Questions such as who is treated as the supplier to the customer, how fulfilment from a designated zone warehouse is treated, and how sales to other GCC countries are handled depend on the facts. Settle them with a tax agent once, then the AI applies the agreed treatment to every period. Our post on VAT for online sellers covers the general rules.

If you run several storefronts and want a dedicated chart of accounts or report per channel, the HelloBooks team can set that up; write to hello@hellobooks.ai with a sample settlement report.